Germany, Heidelberg

“A ruin must be rightly situated, to be effective. This one could not have been better placed. It stands upon a commanding elevation, it is buried in green woods, there is no level ground about it, but, on the contrary, there are wooded terraces upon terraces, and one looks down through shining leaves into profound chasms and abysses where twilight reigns and the sun cannot intrude.”  – Mark Twain – ‘A Tramp Abroad’

Heidelberg has an iconic status as a centre of Germanic history and culture. In 1815, at the end of the Napoleonic wars, the Emperors of Austria and Russia and the King of Prussia formed the ‘Holy Alliance’ in Heidelberg and later in 1848, the year of revolutions, a German National Assembly was established here.  During the Nazi era the authorities built a large stadium on the edge of the city where the SS would parade and have massive rallies.  Luckily the city avoided destruction during the war, it is said because the US army rather liked the look of it and fancied setting up shop there but in fact, as Heidelberg was neither an industrial centre nor a transport hub, there was nothing worth bombing and Allied air raids focused on the more important nearby industrial cities of Mannheim and Ludwigshafen.

Although not an industrial centre one thing that Heidelberg is famous for is the manufacture of high quality printing machines used in the newspaper industry.

Next to the car park was the terminus for the city Heidelberger Bergbahn funicular railway which runs up the side of the Königstuhl hillside and stops off at the City’s famous castle on the way, so we bought a combined ride and entry ticket and took the short trip to the castle entrance.

The castle ruins are among the most important Renaissance structures north of the Alps but lays mostly in ruins because it has only been partially rebuilt since its demolition in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In 1537 a lightning-bolt destroyed the upper castle before damage by later wars and fires and in 1764 another lightning-bolt destroyed some rebuilt sections and it was abandoned as being cursed by bad luck.

It was lovely walking around the ruins in the sunshine and under a blue sky the red roofs of the houses spilling down the river made a dramatic vista.  Inside the castle there was a museum of apothecary but with the sun shining we wanted to be outside so we didn’t stay long and when we had seen as much of the ruins as we wanted too we walked back down to the city centre and made for the Marktplatz.

The market place was another of those German picture book town centres with half timbered medieval buildings painted in gay colours surrounding an immaculate cobbled square with a central fountain and statue.  On the northern side and facing the sun there were restaurants and cafés with pavement tables and chairs so we selected one and sat in shirtsleeves in what was by now surprisingly strong sun and we had a drink and watched the World go by.

Before we left I paid a visit to the gent’s bathroom and I mention this not to be indelicate or to provide any unnecessary details but just to say that German lavatories must be, after Switzerland, the cleanest in Europe and so spotless that I almost felt that I need to wash my hands on the way in.  Toilets in Greece would come bottom of any list and there wouldn’t be many Loo of the Year awards being handed out in France or Spain either.

After the short break we continued our site seeing by walking to Heidelberg’s famous bridge which sweeps across the River Neckar close to the market place.

The double-armed bridge gate dates from the late middle ages but the first stone bridge, supported by eight posts, was built by Karl Theodor in 1788 which explains its official name ‘Karl-Theodor-Brücke’. The towers served the bridge keeper not only as an apartment, but also as a dungeon for prisoners.

In 1945 parts of the bridge were destroyed by the retreating Nazis (they enjoyed blowing things up)* as they retreated from the advancing Allied army and both rooms above the gateway were subsequently refurbished as artistic apartments.  We crossed over to the other side and then back again and slipped into the busy main shopping street which runs parallel to the river.

The day was slipping away now and we were mindful of the journey back down the A5 to the Baden Airpark for our late flight home so before we left Heidelberg we needed to find somewhere to eat.  I wanted to return to the restaurant we had used at lunch time but Kim seemed determined to find somewhere else, which at four o’clock in the afternoon was difficult as this is not a popular time for eating anywhere.

She found a likely looking place and we went inside but immediately she didn’t like it so we stopped only for a drink and then she gave in to my plan and we went to my preferred choice.  It was empty of course but the food was excellent and our final meal in Germany was just as successful as all of those in the past four days.

 

*  Except for the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, Italy which is the oldest bridge in Tuscany and by happy chance the only one in the city that, allegedly due to a direct order from Adolph Hitler himself, wasn’t blown up by the retreating Nazis as they abandoned Italy in 1944 towards the end of the Second-World-War.  Knowing just how much the Nazis used to like to blow things up this must have been a one-in-a-million fluke!

Florence and the Italian Highway Code

“To an American, Italian traffic is at first just down-right nonsense. It
seems hysterical, it follows no rule. You cannot figure what the driver
ahead or behind or beside you is going to do next and he usually does it!”     John Steinbeck

We walked back to the river and crossed the unremarkable Ponte alle Grázie just down from the Ponte Vecchio and towards the gothic church of Santa Croce that houses the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo and Machiavelli but sadly didn’t go inside, which gives us one more good reason to go back again.  Machiavelli or to give him his full name, Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli was an interesting man, he was a political philosopher, musician, poet, and a romantic comedic playwright.   He was a key figure of the Italian Renaissance and is most widely known for his treatise on realist political theory, ‘The Prince’, where he offered advice to politicians on how to behave badly in government and survive.

We found a restaurant for lunch where, but for the traffic, could have sat outside but the noise and the fumes were too much so we took a table inside instead.  We had a pizza, beer and wine and at the end when it came to settle-up the waitress attempted to rip me off with the change for a twenty when I paid with a fifty scam.  In Italy this is one of the most common restaurant cons to watch out for but Kim was sharp enough to spot it and the girl was quick to put it right when the mistake was drawn to her attention.  I was in a hurry to leave after that, I didn’t leave a tip but I forgot to pick up my umbrella so I guess that she got to keep that instead.

Italy it has to be said has some insanely different driving rules to the rest of Europe and the traffic was murderously busy and dangerously hectic in this part of the city.

Traffic lights are a good example of these different rules because each one resembles the starting grid of a formula one grand prix.  At an Italian traffic junction there is an intolerant confusion of cars all impatiently throbbing with engines growling, exhaust pipes fuming and clutch plates sizzling like a red hot grill plate whilst behind the wheel the drivers blood pressure reaches somewhere beyond boiling point.  A regard for the normal habits of road safety is curiously absent in Italy so although the traffic light colours are the same as elsewhere they mean completely different things.  Red means slow down, amber means go and green means mass homicide.  At a junction an Italian driver simply points his car at the exit he is aiming for and five seconds before the lights go green, he shuts his eyes, presses the accelerator to the floor then races forward and may God have mercy on anything or anyone in his way.

According to EuroStat, in 2004, there were thirty two thousand, nine hundred and fifty-one road deaths in the European Union and five thousand, six-hundred and twenty-five of them were in Italy. That is about 17%.  In the ten years up to 2004 the Italians slaughtered sixty-five thousand, one hundred and twenty five people in traffic accidents so it pays to have your wits about you when crossing the road and why if you want to be completely sure of avoiding death on the highway in Italy it is probably safest to visit Venice.

Perhaps it is because of their lusty reputation but they are also the horniest drivers in Europe.  Even though the use of the horn in built up areas is officially prohibited in Italy the streets were a cacophony of blazing sound that had a most disorientating effect so having negotiated the lethal traffic we made our way back to the Piazza della Signori passing by and admiring the exteriors of the buildings that sadly we didn’t have time to visit.  The Piazza was busy now with street performers and traders competing for the attention and the Euros of what seemed like about twenty million tourists.   We looked around some more and then went back to the café that we had used in the morning where we enjoyed sitting out in the lovely afternoon sunshine with a drink whilst watching the various activities taking place in the square in front of the cafe.

Suitably refreshed we retraced our steps back to the Duomo and were pleased to see that the long queues at the entrance had gone so took the opportunity to go in and take a look around.  The impressive Cathedral is constructed primarily from white and pink Tuscan marble and it was light and airy inside which was in contrast to many other cathedrals we have visited.  It was possible to go to the top of the dome and I would have liked to have done that but there just wasn’t time so we added it to the ‘to do next time’ list.

The final railway journey of the holiday took us back to Pisa and Kim slept again.  There was something about those train journeys that had a gentle soporific effect that she couldn’t resist but she was still catching up on the loss of virtually an entire night’s sleep and there had been a lot of walking today.  I liked the trains, they were clean and efficient and always on time and on this journey back in the sunshine the views were excellent.  Because of the weather we obviously didn’t see the best of the famous Tuscan countryside but that is on my ‘to see next time list’ as well.

In Pisa the sun was still shining so we went back to the Leaning Tower for one last look and then to eat al fresco at the first trattoria that we had used on the first day.  To be honest it was a bit chilly and our insistence on being served our food outside surprised the waiters somewhat who clearly regarded us as foolhardy.

Back at the hotel we collected the bags and arranged a taxi and then waited nervously to see if we would get the same maniac who brought us here.  We were relieved to be collected by an older driver who took us back sedately to the airport in a rather disappointingly uneventful journey.

Florence and The Ponte Vecchio

“…we used to go and stand on the bridges and admire the Arno. It is popular to admire the Arno. It is a great historical creek with four feet in the channel and some scows floating around. It would be a very plausible river if they would pump some water into it. They all call it a river, and they honestly think it is a river, do these dark and bloody Florentines. They even help out the delusion by building bridges over it.” – Mark Twain – ‘The Innocents Abroad’

The most famous bridge in Florence is the Ponte Vecchio, which crosses the River Arno and like the Rialto in Venice is instantly recognisable by the thousands of tourists who visit it annually and saunter aimlessly from one side to the other and then back again.  It is the oldest bridge in Tuscany and by happy chance the only one in the city that, allegedly due to a direct order from Adolph Hitler himself, wasn’t blown up by the retreating Nazis as they abandoned Italy in 1944 towards the end of the Second-World-War.  Knowing just how much the Nazis used to like to blow things up this must have been a one-in-a-million fluke.

The first bridge on this site was built a very long time ago by the Romans and was constructed of wood on stone piers.  It was ruined in 1117 and later reconstructed but destroyed again in 1333 by flooding, it was then rebuilt once more in 1345, but this time much more sensibly using stone.  Due to the high volume of traffic using the bridge, a number of shopkeepers set up shop to catch the passing trade. The first merchants here consisted primarily of blacksmiths, butchers, and tanners catering mostly to travelling soldiers but when the Medici family moved into Florence bringing with them vast wealth and an appreciation for the finer things in life they promptly cleared the bridge of all the dirty trades that were a bit of an eyesore and certainly responsible for polluting the river below and replaced them with goldsmiths and similar upmarket shops.

Today it remains lined with medieval workshops on both sides and some of them precariously overhang the river below supported only by slender timber brackets that look as though they are in imminent danger of collapse.  A number of these shops had to be replaced in 1966 when there was a major flood that consumed the city and swept some of them away but this time was unable to destroy the bridge itself.

Running along the top of the bridge is a corridor that the Medici had built so that they could cross the river without having to mix with the riff-raff below and is now an art gallery but we stayed down below and pushed our way through the hordes of tourists.  Today, as everyday I suspect, the bridge was busy with street traders and shoppers and the ever-present scrounging beggars.

Along the bridge and especially in the middle around the statue of the Florentine sculptor, Cellini, there were many padlocks clamped to the railings.  This, I found out later, is a lover’s tradition where by locking the padlock and throwing the key into the river they become eternally bonded.  This is an action where I would recommend extreme caution because it sounds dangerously impulsive to me; I think I would further recommend taking the precaution of keeping a spare somewhere in case I needed releasing later.  Apparently all of these love tokens do lots of damage to the bridge and thousands of padlocks need to be removed every year.  To deter people there is a €50 penalty for those caught doing it and that is a much higher price than I would ever be prepared to pay for eternal bondage.

Actually, it may be that there is some truth in this legend because according to ‘EuroStat’, even though it has doubled in the last five years, Italy has one of the lowest divorce rates in the European Union.  Sweden has the highest and although I don’t know this for sure I’m willing to bet that across all of Europe the Vatican State probably has the absolute lowest.

On the south bank of the river there is an area of the city known as the Oltrano (literally ‘Over the Arno’), which was an area of palaces and gardens developed by the Medici in the sixteenth century where they moved to get away from the overcrowding and the pollution of the old city.  The walk along the embankment took us as far as the Porta San Niccolò, a fourteenth century City gate and from there we climbed what seemed like never ending winding steps through lush mature gardens to the Piazzale Michelangelo where there were far reaching views over the rooftops of Florence on the north side of the river.

The pastel facades of the buildings with their terracotta tiled roofs were just as they appear in the guide books and looked magnificent under a sky becoming ever more steadily blue.  At this location there was another copy of the statue of David and several other Michelangelo masterpieces but all of this was spoilt somewhat by the presence of the tacky tourist stalls catering for the continuous flood of day trippers arriving in torrents by coach.

The City was stretched out below and as we surveyed it and appreciated its size we knew instinctively that we had not allowed nearly enough time for the visit to Florence as we only had enough for a frantic dash around the major sites and certainly didn’t have time to visit the many museums, palaces and gardens that we would have liked to have seen.  We made a decision that we would have to come back another time.

‘Have Bag, Will Travel’ – The Top Ten Blogs of 2011

My top ten most hit blog pages in 2011 have mostly surprised me.  I say hit blog pages rather than read because I am neither conceited enough of sufficiently naive to claim that a hit equals a read.

None of these blogs are my particular favourites and if I was asked to compile my own top ten list only two of these would be included.

No. 1

Norway, Haugesund and the Vikings.

I travelled to Haugesund in January and visited a Viking monument and blogged about it.  This post has had 8,900 hits which is nearly 6,000 more than the post in second place.  7,200 hits have been recorded from the single word ‘Vikings’ in various search engines!  I have concluded that this is because there are a lot of people using the search engines to find content about the Minnesota Vikings American Football Team and they are probably disappointed when they come across my page about a wintery day spent next to the North Sea in Norway.

No. 2

Krakow, Wieliczka Salt Mine

2,930 hits. I posted this in April 2010 after returning from a visit to Krakow in Poland.  It was a good trip but I am not sure why so many people would hit on it.  It is not as interesting as my trip to Auschwitz or the Crazy Mike Communist Tour.

No. 3

Greece 2010, The Colossus of Rhodes

2,415 hits.  This is a post that records the penultimate day of my holiday to the Greek Island of Rhodes in September 2010.  I previously posted a page about the visiting the Colossus in 1999 but it has just not attracted the same amount of interest.

No. 4

Royal Garden Party

2,135 hits.  This one has always been popular especially around the Spring and Summer when invitations to the Royal Garden Party are going out and when people are wondering how to get one or what to wear if they have one.  I am not surprised that this is in the Top Ten!

No. 5

Pula, Croatia

1,965 hits.  A bit of a mystery to me how this one gets so many visits.  I have blogged two or three times about Roman Amphitheatres – Rome, Arles, Merida, Segobriga and about larger Croatian cities at Dubrovnik and Split but this one gets the hits and I don’t know why?  The Pula is the national currency of Botswana so perhaps they are meant as exchange rate enquiries?

No. 6

Cofete Beach

1,790 hits.  Not really surprised by this one because it had a picture of a lady with no clothes on and thousands of people seem to be looking for pictures of naked ladies on a beach!

No. 7

Mount Vesuvius

1,685 hits.  A bit of a surprise because this is the account of a day trip to Mount Vesuvius whilst on a holiday to Sorrento in 1976 with my dad. I posted several blogs about visits to Capri, Naples, Pompeii, The Amalfi Drive and Rome but these have only achieved a handful of hits between them.

No. 8

Norway, Europe’s most Expensive Country

1,585 hits.  This was a second blog about my trip to Haugesund in January 2011. It contains some interesting facts and figures which might explain the number of hits that it has received but I am not really convinced that this is the reason unless top European economists were using it for research puposes!

No. 9

Love Locks and the Ponte Vecchio, Florence

1,370 hits. This one has consistently received a high number of hits and I cannot explain why.  It is an unremarkable blog about a day trip and visit to the Italian city of Florence.  I would have expected my blog about the Leaning Tower of Pisa to get more hits than the Ponte Vecchio, although there seems to be a lot of restaurants called Ponte Vecchio and this might explain it?

No. 10

Spartacus, Freedom Fighter or Bandit?

1,330 hits. I have posted a number of historical blogs but this is the one that has generated the most interest – perhaps because of the US TV series.  Not as good, in my opinion, as my posts about Spain’s national hero – El Cid!

If you have read one of these blogs or any of the 640 others on my site ‘Have Bag, Will Travel’, then Thank you very much!

Love Locks and The Ponte Vecchio, Florence

“The padlockers are neither poets, sculptors or artists but vandals and hooligans, the locks are ruining marble, iron and stone and are a new and ‘vulgar’ symbol of Italian love”                                                                                                  La Repubblica, Italian Newspaper

The Ponte Vecchio that crosses the river Arno in Florence is the oldest bridge in Tuscany and by happy chance the only one in the city that wasn’t blown up by the retreating Germans as they cleared out from Florence in their withdrawal from Italy during the Second-World-War.

Knowing how the Germans were fond of blowing things up that must have been a one-in-a-million fluke!

One version of the story is that Adolf Hitler himself gave the order not to blow it up.  Another is that no one wanted to destroy such a beautiful thing so the German commandant made radio contact with the Americans and offered to leave the Ponte Vecchio intact if the Americans would promise not to use it. The promise was held. The bridge was not blown up, and not one American soldier or piece of equipment went across it. The bridge was spared.

The first bridge on this site was built a long time ago by the Romans and was constructed of wood on piers of stone.  It was ruined in 1117, reconstructed soon after but destroyed again in 1333 by flooding and then rebuilt once more in 1345, but this time more sensibly in stone.

Due to the high volume of traffic using the bridge, a number of shopkeepers set up shop to catch the passing trade. The first merchants here consisted primarily of blacksmiths, butchers, and tanners catering mostly to travelling soldiers who were passing through but when the Medici family moved into Florence bringing with them vast wealth and an appreciation for the finer things in life they promptly cleared the bridge of all the dirty trades, that were probably a bit of an eyesore anyway, and certainly responsible for polluting the river below.

They replaced them with goldsmiths and more similar upmarket shops and today it remains lined with medieval workshops on both sides with some of them precariously overhanging the river below supported only by slender timber brackets.  A number of these shops had to be replaced in 1966 when there was a major flood that consumed the city and damaged some of them but this time was unable to destroy the bridge itself.

Running along the top of the bridge is a corridor that the Medici had built so that they could cross the river without having to mix with the riff-raff below and is now an art gallery.  When we visited the bridge it was busy with street traders and shoppers and the ever-present scrounging beggars.  Along the bridge there were many padlocks locked to the railings and especially in the middle around the statue of the Florentine sculptor, Cellini.

This, I found out later, is a lover’s tradition inspired by I Want You, the 2006 novel by Federico Moccia where by inscribing names, locking the padlock and throwing the key into the river they become eternally bonded.  

This is an action where I would recommend extreme caution because it sounds dangerously impulsive to me; I think I would further recommend taking the precaution of keeping a spare somewhere in case I needed it later.  Apparently all of these love tokens do lots of damage to the bridge and thousands of padlocks need to be removed every year.  To deter people there is a €50 penalty for those caught doing it and that is a much higher price than I would be prepared to pay for eternal bondage!

This tradition might sound all rather romantic and lovely but apparently all of these love tokens do lots of damage to the bridges because as they age and rust this spreads to the ironwork and thousands of padlocks need to be removed every year from bridges across Europe.  In Venice the penalty is a whopping €3,000 fine and up to a year in prison for those caught doing it and that is a much, much higher price than I would be prepared to pay for eternal bondage!

To anyone who thinks this is mean spirited please bear in mind that in June 2014 the ‘Pond des Arts’ in Paris across the River Seine collapsed under the weight of these padlock monstrosities and had to be temporarily closed.  They are not just unsightly – they are dangerous!

Actually, it may be that there is some truth in this eternal bonding tale because according to ‘Eurostat’, even though the divorce rate has doubled in the last five years,  Italy has one of the lowest rates in the European Union.  Sweden has the highest and although I don’t know this for a fact I’m willing to bet that across all of Europe the Vatican State probably has the absolute lowest!

A day trip to Florence

Venice three visits three hotels